Vice President JD Vance announced Tuesday that the administration’s Fraud Task Force is pulling roughly 750,000 people off Obamacare rolls after determining they were likely enrolled fraudulently. Another 419,000 enrollees will face additional verification to confirm they meet income and residency requirements.
“We are stopping Obamacare enrollment for about 750,000 people who we believe are fraudulently enrolled in the program and doing additional verification checks on about 419,000 more to make sure they meet the requirements,” Vance said.
Vance made the announcement alongside Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Oz said many of the flagged enrollees are “phantom” sign-ups who don’t actually exist, while others were reportedly enrolled without ever knowing it.
The administration will also suspend brokers and agents tied to improper enrollments and impose a six-month moratorium on new brokers and agents. The Biden administration took similar action in 2024, suspending hundreds of brokers and agents for suspected fraud after federal subsidies were expanded in 2021.
No ID Required
Oz said 1.1 million people enrolled in Obamacare programs without providing a Social Security number or any identifying number that would let officials verify legal residency.
“1.1 million people came onto the Obamacare programs with no Social Security Numbers, no ID numbers to allow us to figure out if they’re legally here and they’re getting full-freight insurance paid by you, the U.S. taxpayer,” Oz said.
Oz also pointed to an unusually high share of enrollees, 35 percent, who have never used their coverage at all.
“They haven’t bought a prescription medication. They haven’t seen a doctor. That’s just not possible. That’s at least twice as much as your normal incidence of people having insurance and not using it. So, we know there is fraud,” Oz said.
A Florida Case
Oz singled out the case of Cory Lloyd, whom he described as having “a very punchable face.” Lloyd and his partner, Stephen Strong, were convicted for preying on vulnerable people to enroll them in Obamacare plans in order to collect insurance commission payments, according to a February Department of Justice announcement.
“These crooks bribed homeless and jobless people into enrolling in the ACA plans. They had no idea what they were doing,” Oz said.
Oz read text messages between Lloyd and Strong showing they specifically targeted Floridians who had lost their homes in hurricanes.
“This is the text message. This is … I can’t even say these words on television. But Lloyd said ‘it’s a killer idea to sign up these poor individuals, make them victims. If it could pull it off. I want to rape the shelters.’ And then Strong said, ‘ha ha, not kidding.’ And then Lloyd said ‘me either. Let’s ef ’em up,'” Oz relayed.
Lloyd and Strong were each sentenced to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $180.6 million in restitution.
The Trump administration has now tied roughly $2.2 billion in potential fraud to the crackdown since taking office in January 2025.
